.XXX domains hit the net

Online red light district goes live

The internet overlords at ICANN have seen fit to tidy all the online porn away into one handy, easy to find corner of the web with the .XXX domain which has finally gone live.

Over the coming weeks, more and more of the 200,000 adult entertainment sites which pre-registered for the sexy new domain will be going live.

Previously, porn was strewn willy nilly (ahem) around the information superhighway, with nary a thought for the children.

.xoxo

Now, the curious little kittens need only try out a few likely web addresses ending in .XXX to find all the salacious, questionable and NSFW web content their little hearts might desire.

They may be disappointed to learn that only premium adult sites are able to register a .XXX domain, so they'll need to lift a parent's credit card while they're at it.

.XXXbox

Actually, not all porn will be swept into the dodgy .XXX back alley, with the traditional online adult industry being less than thrilled about the launch of the domain.

The Free Speech Coalition, an adult industry lobbying group, promised to boycott the domains, saying that segregating and pigeon-holing adult content is not the way to go.

Diane Duke, executive director of the coalition, previously blogged, "Remember, more of these domain names have failed than succeeded, and without the support of the industry it is purported to serve .XXX is history!"

Displaying an astounding lack of imagination, the first .xxx domains to go live include xxx.xxx, sex.xxx and porn.xxx; we'd visit and report back on the content but we're pretty sure that's more than our jobs are worth.